There’s no doubt that online ticketing platform Eventbrite is growing like gangbusters. The platform is on track to sell $400 million worth of tickets this year, which is double the $207 million it did last year. The company could reach $1 billion in gross ticket sales in 2012. And part of Eventbrite’s future plan will include a public offering. Co-founder Kevin Hartz tells ZURB in a recently published podcast that Eventbrite could file to go public as early as late 2012 (at the 38 minute mark in the podcast) if the company reaches certain performance benchmarks.
Hartz had some interesting commentary about going public in general. He believes companies should IPO earlier rather than later, and that staying private too long allows for “bad habits to fester” under little regulation. As for Eventbrite, Hartz says that he wants the company to be around 30 years from now and being a public company is part of that strategic plan.
Eventbrite just raised another $50 million in a Series E financing round led by Tiger Global, bringing the company’s total funding to $80 million. Over 10 million people have attended an event ticketed by Eventbrite, and to date the platform has helped over 120,000 event organizers in 150 countries host more than half a million events.
The performance benchmarks Hartz is referring to in the podcast most probably include ticket sales and revenue. In terms of revenue, $1 billion in ticket volume translates to roughly $50 million in revenues for Eventbrite. The platform takes a small cut of each sale.
In order to scale even further, Eventbrite is hoping to create the ‘Eventbrite Box Office,’ for event planners. The startup is bundling together an iPad with an Eventbrite app, a card swipe, and a ticket printer so that event organizers can take payments and issue tickets at the event itself.
Checkout Hartz speaking to Chris Dixon on this recent Founder Stories episode.